Thirty-Fourth Adventure: How They Threw Down the Dead

Then after all their labor the lords sat down at last.
Before the hall together Folker and Hagan pass'd.
The pair of haughty champions upon their bucklers leant,
And each the time with th' other in gentle converse spent.

Then the youthful Giselher thus his mind express'd,
"Ye must not yet, dear comrades, think of ease or rest;
From out the house first hasten to bear the dead away.
Once more shall we do battle; that I can truly say.

"Beneath our feet 'twere better they should no longer lie.
Ere these proud Huns subdue us, and we o'ermaster'd die,
Hewn will be many a hauberk, and blood in torrents flow;
No sight can please me better than a bleeding foe."

"I'm proud of such a master," cried Hagan with delight;
"Who could e'er give such counsel save a redoubted knight?
When words so wise and valiant from our young lord you hear,
Needs must ye, bold Burgundians! be all of lively cheer."

The counsel straight they follow'd, and carried through the door,
And cast out from among them, seven thousand dead or more.
Adown the stairs they tumbled and lay in heaps below.
Then burst forth from their kinsmen a thrilling scream of woe.

'Mongst these was many a warrior, though wounded and in pain,
Who yet with milder treatment might have wax'd whole again.
Crush'd by the fall they perish'd, who half had 'scap'd the sword.
Their friends with moans of sorrow their fatal doom deplor'd.

Then spake the minstrel Folker, the warrior void of fear,
"I oft have heard reported, and now behold I clear,
That Huns are vile and worthless; they like weak women wail,
When they should tend the wounded, and soothe their dreary bale."

Then ween'd a Hunnish margrave, he thus through kindness spake;
He saw a luckless kinsman fall'n in a bloody lake;
So threw his arms about him, and hoped away to bear.
Him shot to death the minstrel; down fell he dying there.

When this was seen by th' others, they took at once to flight;
That same redoubted gleeman all curs'd with all their might.
He brandish'd high a javelin, well-temper'd, bright, and keen,
Which by a Hun against him before had darted been.

This through the echoing castle he sent with mastering main
Far o'er the crowd of tremblers; that shot to Etzel's train
Gave another station more distant from the hall.
The matchless strength of Folker dismay'd their leaders all.

Before the house assembled were many thousand men;
Sir Folker and Sir Hagan both together then
Began unto King Etzel all their mind to tell,
Whence grievous ill thereafter both the good knights befell.

"The trembling crowd to hearten," said Hagan, "sure 'tis right
That kings and leaders ever be foremost in the fight;
E'en so do here among us my own redoubted lords,
And, when they cleave the morions, blood spouts beneath their swords."

A valiant knight was Etzel; his shield in hand he took.
"Be wary," cried Dame Kriemhild: "to your good liegemen look;
Fill shields with gold, to move them yon stranger to defy.
Death must be needs your neighbor if Hagan comes you nigh."

The king he was so fearless, he would not budge an inch;
Seldom are such great princes so disinclin'd to flinch.
By his shield's thong his warriors then drew him back perforce.
Hagan went on to mock him in accents loud and coarse.

"I' faith the kin was distant," he cried with scornful sound,
"That Etzel and Sir Siegfried in one alliance bound.
He cheer'd fair Lady Kriemhild long ere she look'd on thee.
Dishonor'd king and worthless! why knit thy brow at me?"

His proud disdainful mockery the wrath of Kriemhild stirr'd;
To be revil'd of Hagan, while Etzel's warriors heard,
And jeer'd before the many, was more than she could brook,
So now yet deadlier counsel against the guests she took.

"Who Hagan, Lord of Trony, shall slay," she fiercely said,
"And bring unto me hither his abhorred head,
For him the shields of Etzel I'll heap with ruddy gold,
And give him, too, for guerdon lands and castles manifold."

"I know not," said the minstrel, "what now can keep them back;
Sure never saw I warriors so heartless stand and slack,
When a fair dame had promis'd such rich and ample pay.
Etzel can trust them never if they should flinch to-day.

"Those who the bread of Etzel have eaten many a year,
And, when his need is greatest, like cowards fail him here,
These see I stand fear-troubled; they dare not move a jot,
And yet would pass for warriors! shame ever be their lot!"

Thus with distress and sorrow was Etzel ill bestead,
Right bitterly bewailing his kin and subjects dead.
Good knights of many a country stood round, a mournful ring,
And for that bloody banquet wept with their weeping king.

Then thought the best among them, "Sure Folker tells us true."
But none so inly sorrow'd of all that wavering crew,
As the bold Margrave Iring, the fearless Danish knight;
This soon he prov'd before them by deeds of manly might.